Twiggy: Fat folk have no excuse

Fat hater: Twiggy
Sarah Hills|Metro11 April 2012
The Weekender

Sign up to our free weekly newsletter for exclusive competitions, offers and theatre ticket deals

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Sixties supermodel Twiggy has hit out at fat people - after replacing a size-16 woman as the new face and body of Marks and Spencer.

The 56-year-old said there was no excuse for being obese and accused people of 'horrendous' over-eating.

Yet she also admitted there was too much pressure on young girls to be as skinny as she was when she found fame as a 16-year-old in the 1960s.

Twiggy is starring in a new M&S TV advertising campaign, the company's first since it targeted fullerfigured 'normal' women five years ago.

Then, size 16 model Amy Davis was shown running naked on a hilltop, hollering: 'I'm normal!'

The firm decided to use size 14 rather than size 12 as its base model for clothes, after researchers found

British women had become bigger and curvier. It increased the size 14 bust measurement from 36in to 36.5in, waist from 29in to 30in, and hips from 39in to 39.5in.

But Twiggy said: 'You can be voluptuous but you must not be obese and I do think Western society's eating habits are horrendous.

'I was blamed for causing bad eating habits and I always came out and said, "Look, I eat like a horse". I was naturally skinny. I looked like an alien compared to other women.

'I do advocate healthy eating, not eating a load of rubbish - although I did when I was 17, I have to admit.

'The pressure on young girls to be skinny today is terrible, though.'

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in